John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

“All my pleasures are sinister.”

“Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories.”

“We have a pretty witty king, Whose word no man relies on; He never said a foolish thing, Nor ever did a wise one.”

“The great affair is to move.”

“A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.”

“Were I (who to my cost already am one of those strange, prodigious creatures, man) a spirit free to choose for my own share, what case of flesh and blood I pleased to wear, I'd be a dog, a monkey, or a bear, or anything but that vain animal who is so proud of being rational.”

“Then old age and experience, hand in hand, Lead him to death, and make him understand, After a search so painful and so long, That all his life he has been in the wrong.”

“Anger's a thief who steals away the brain, And locks the doors of reason.”

“For pointed satire I would Buckhurst choose, the best good man with the worst-natured muse.”

“But obscene words, too gross to move desire, Like heaps of fuel do but choke the fire.”

“Mankind, that monster of absurdity.”